Long-term Saturn developer slinga submitted a 3.7.0 Alpha build of their Save Game Copier into the SegaXtreme Sega Saturn 31st Anniversary Homebrew Showcase. The SHIRO! announcement of this year’s showcase can be viewed here.
The latest build of this already-robust utility brings three new features to the table, presenting Saturn users with more ways than ever to access and share their treasured game data. Slinga specifically asked that the competition reviewers only consider the newly added functionality of Save Game Copier, not the utility as a whole.
The new Save Game Copier Alpha build now includes:
- Modem support (experimental, write-only)
- Serial link support (experimental, write-only)
- Video CD (VCD) card dumping support
You can download the Save Game Copier 3.7.0 Alpha here.
Slinga’s Save Game Copier is a data transfer utility designed to facilitate the backup, preservation, and sharing of save files from original Sega Saturn hardware.
One would be forgiven for thinking that this is not the first time slinga’s Save Game Copier has appeared in a SegaXtreme Saturn Anniversary Competition. Most would likely point to the 26th Anniversary Competition in particular as evidence positive for this — SHIRO! reporting at the time said as much. However, what was submitted by slinga in the 2020 competition was actually the Save Game Extractor, a different utility that enables a Saturn user to “transmit… save game files as audio to backup on a PC.” This confusion is understandable given the shared author, parallel functions, similar naming conventions, and proximal mid-2020 release dates.
The new functionality
Here’s a look at each of the three new functions as they are described in slinga’s submission post and the Save Game Copier 3.7.0 Alpha readme.
Modem support (experimental, write-only):
Support for the NetLink and Saturn Modem — only tested with the PC-based NetLink Tunnel.
To use the Save Game Copier with the NetLink Tunnel, you will need to edit the “netlink_config.ini” file in the NetLink Tunnel folder with the following:
[server:199407]
name = SaveGameCopier
host = 127.0.0.1
port = 4827
Next you will need to “Start netcat listening: nc -l 4827 > save.BUP” and then start the NetLink Tunnel.
Once the NetLink Tunnel is active, go into the Save Game Copier on your Saturn Console select a save file and then select “Send to Modem.” Should a successful connection be made, it is at this point that data can be transferred. To put the transfer speeds into perspective, slinga said that “the 512k [Saturn] BIOS takes about 9 minutes to send.”
Serial link support (experimental, write-only):
Using a custom serial link adapter, Saturn fans can use Save Game Copier to transfer save data from a Saturn console to a PC. To utilize this function, do the following:
- Start Save Game Copier 3.7.0 Alpha on your Saturn console
- On your PC, run “picocom: picocom -b 209954 -g”
- For example: picocom /dev/ttyUSB0 -b 209954 -g BIOS.BIN
- Within Save Game Copier, click on a save file and then select “Send to Serial”
- Note that the Save Game Copier will go blank but you should see “data on picocom”
Slinga again provided the time it would take to transfer the Saturn’s 512k Bios files as a metric, in this case taking only “about 30s to send” making the Serial to USB transfer speed many minutes faster than the NetLink Tunnel method.
Dumping VCD card firmware:
The 3.7.0 Alpha Build of Save Game Copier also can dump the firmware of a VCD card, assuming you have one plugged into your console. To use, simply open Save Game Copier on your Saturn with a VCD card inserted and — if it is detected by your console — a “VCD Card” option will be available via the utility’s menu.
Note that the Satiator occupies the same slot as a VDC card, and therefore this specific Save Game Copier function is not available with the 3.7.0 build when using that specific ODE. However, since the initial posting of their Save Game Copier submission, slinga has provided a potential solution with a Satiator-specific Alpha build, 3.7.1, saying the following:
“Fixed Satiator hang related to VCD Card detection. Please test with 3.7.1 if you are using [Satiator]: Release Fix Satiator Hang · slinga-homebrew/Save-Game-Copier. Thank you to Reyeme for reporting and testing.”
Attribution and future updates
Slinga said in their entry on SegaXtreme that “this release is based very much on the work of the community… so it only made sense to contribute it back again.”
The following community members were thanked for making the present build of Save Game Copier possible:
- Johannes Fetz — for Jo Engine and “adding features needed by Save Game Copier.” It is clear that Jo Engine was critical in the development of this build as Slinga states in their submission text that “[they first] ported work from the community to [it] and then to Save Game Copier.” Slinga said that the former has not yet been “merged to Jo Engine.”
- CyberWarriorX — for mpgromdump, “which was the basis for the VCD dumping support”
- rudger and likeagfeld — for Disasteroids NetLink, “which was the basis for the modem support” (check out SHIRO!’s coverage here)
- Knight0fDragon — for providing a Saturn serial to USB cable
- SHIRO! — “for allowing me to buy a Japanese modem to test with”
- eaudunord — for the NetLink Tunnel
Slinga also shared some potential future functions for Save Game Copier, emphasizing that there is not a timeline on these yet. Two features were described:
- “Get recv working on the Saturn side for Modem and Serial Link. This will require thought, spewing bytes to a PC is pretty easy. Ultimately I envision a single python script that can handle both.”
- “Get video playback with the VCD Card working. Will require [reverse engineering] the firmware.”
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